Much of America was overtaken by slavery for nearly two hundred and fifty years, dating back to the 1600’s in Jamestown, Virginia. In the 1850’s, slavery was widespread across the Southern states viewing blacks as inferior, which made the action morally acceptable in their eyes. Within the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was established, allowing slave catchers to travel into free states to capture runaway slaves and stating that private citizens must assist in capturing the slaves or else they’d be fined or jailed. Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and abolitionist, found the idea of taking part in such a wrongful system as the one that was put into effect by the compromise, to be completely immoral and wanted nothing to …show more content…
Stowe decided to share her personal beliefs in what was going on around her by writing; so she gathered first hand accounts, news articles, and personal narratives with the help of her friends and family to begin the writing of her first work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Harriet’s story was first published in an abolitionist newspaper titled, The National Era in 1851. It was later published as a two volume book in 1852. The novel became a highly controversial subject throughout the United States, selling 300,000 copies within the first year of being published. After reading this eye-opening piece of work, many Northerners began to realize the horrors of slavery and altered their opinions on the matter, while down South, Stowe was given an overwhelming amount of criticism and hatred for writing such lies. All in all, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, contributed to the disunion of the U.S. by having an extremely powerful impact on millions of Northerners and Europeans and their perspectives on the morality and action of slavery; and riled up the firm Southern believers with accusations of untruthful statements …show more content…
Before Stowe’s novel was written, Northerners did not have strong opinions on slavery, but many did benefit from the goods produced by Southern slaves. After the novel was written, Northern citizens began to change their minds, realizing the abhorrence of the subject of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin divided the nation, of the North and South, by engaging millions into the revolution of anti-slavery and abolition. The minority of abolitionists in the North, already campaigning to end slavery, praised and heavily supported the ideas and publishing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Civil War arose from the many conflicts between the North and South, one of the main ones being slavery. The novel itself became another conflict in the nation and customized the arguments between the North and South in economic and political aspects. Harriet Beecher Stowe changed views not only in the Northern region of the United States, but also internationally in European countries. Stowe sent a letter to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stating that her work concerns the citizens’ best interests and that the country would now be filled with nobility and humanity. Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped citizens “determine what kind of country they wanted to live in”, and with this in mind, they did not want to live in a country where slavery was